ENGLISH EDITION

Despite expectations from government officials that the issue will be soon settled, the SSM has yet to reply to a request from Greek authorities calling for the bonds from the securitized asset to carry a zero risk factor. The ECB understands the position that Greek banks are in but there are mixed views on this in Frankfurt, with some insisting that rules be strictly applied to all.

The first phase of the privatization winds up today with the expiration of a deadline for those submitting initial interest in the Greek asset. Two Italian companies, SNAM and Italgas, are getting ready to battle it out for the privatization of DEPA Infrastructure amidst strong international interest for the tender deal.

Exceptionally favorable conditions in the fixed income market in combination with improved economic conditions in Greece and high expectations for a good 2020 have driven yields to historic lows.However, this optimism has not spilled over on to the stock market. The distance separating the stock and bond markets is obvious.

PPC has been awarded a tender held by the Defence Ministry to develop former military barracks located on Mesogion avenue, opposite the Sotiria hospital, where it intends to set up a modernized head office and retail store. PPC will take on the property for 50 years, with an option for 10 more years, on a property that stretches over 1.8 hectares and accommodates 22 buildings.

In recent weeks, the government has picked up efforts on this front, as a very small number of loans (tied to primary residencies) have qualified for favorable treatment, indicating that a wave of forced home sales is coming up, in what may trigger significant opposition at a community level.

The new scheme is expected to back 560 million euros of new investment by farmers, agribusiness, food and bioeconomy companies across the country. Agriculture and agribusiness is crucial sector for the Greek economy and key employer in rural districts and regional towns.

On Thursday, Mytilineos announced the sale of a 47MW portfolio of solar parks to Motor Oil for 45.8 million euros. The target for Mytilineos over the next five years is to build and sell energy parks with a capacity of 1500 MW mainly abroad, where it has a large portfolio of projects in countries such as Australia, UK, Spain, Cyprus, South Korea, and Mexico.

"The scheme itself is not a panacea for resolving the asset quality problem in the banking system, given that we estimate only up to around 36 billion euros of NPEs can be dealt with through this scheme compared to around 71 billion euros of outstanding NPEs in the system as of September 2019," Nondas Nicolaides, Vice President – Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Investors Service, told Business Daily.

Both ports have been showing strong growth. In 2019, 5.65 million containers moved through Piraeus, representing an increase of 28.4 percent, after taking into account the estimated number of goods transported through Pier I (the formal data has yet to be made public). 

Bad loans are not something new in Greece. In fact, they are as old as the crisis itself. However, no previous Greek government showed any determination to address the issue, as international creditors adopted a similar stance. Since the crisis arose in 2008, Greek governments kept putting the issue on the back burner by blocking efforts by lenders to recover nonperforming loans (NPLs), providing loan holders with protection.